Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a multi-view (MV) advertising system and method, which utilize a multi-view (MV) display capable of forming multiple images respectively visible to multiple viewers located in multiple viewing zones relative to the MV display (hence a different image shown to a different viewer) independently of each other and simultaneously.
Description of the Related Art
Advertising is used by companies to influence others to buy or use their products and services. In the 20th century, broadcasting technologies allowed the same ads to be delivered to many people simultaneously. For products and services with broad appeal, this seemed efficient. But when products have limited appeal, this is not the case. For example, men typically have little use for feminine hygiene products. To sell these products more efficiently, an advertiser might choose to purchase ad time during a television show that had mostly female viewers. By the late 20th century, media outlets were creating detailed demographic profiles of their consumers so that advertisers could select among them to reach ever more specific audiences.
The 21st century saw the rise of personal devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. For the first time, technology made it possible to target ads to people with particular characteristics on a massive scale. For example, if you want to target sneaker ads to people who are looking for sneakers, you can buy ads that will display when someone does an online search for sneakers. Targeted advertising is not only effective, it is also very lucrative, and it has driven the financial performance of some of the world's most successful companies.
Targeted advertising works well online. Through tracking cookies and other technical means, it is possible to learn a very great deal of personal information, and this is routinely used to select the most effective ads.
Targeted ads are much harder to do in physical stores. In order to reach individual consumers, some companies are pushing advertisements to users' cell phones when they are in proximity of the point of purchase. Because these are personal devices, schemes like this can only work if the user is voluntarily running a special application on his or her device. Systems like these can quickly become annoying. If your personal device is buzzing every few steps to push you an ad, most people will simply disable the offending application.
In sharp contrast, point of purchase advertising via signage in the environment is an expected and often desirable part of the shopping experience. Signs explain the benefits of particular products, and help consumers determine what fits their needs. However, the benefits of targeting are largely unavailable. For example, a customer with a food allergy may wish that point of purchase displays made special note of which products did or did not contain their specific allergens. Providing such targeted information, tailored specifically to each individual customer, is impractical given the limited space available on point of purchase displays. It may be possible, for example, to provide sensors that observe a shopper pick up a certain product, and consequently trigger an advertising presentation on a nearby monitor that promotes the very product. Problems with this approach may include that everyone in the vicinity is exposed to the presentation intended for the one shopper, and that only one shopper can receive the targeted message at a time (i.e., others can't receive their own targeted messages, simultaneously). Stores are often crowded places, and conventional signage, even in combination with sensors, does not provide a mechanism for targeting different information to different customers that are within view of the same signage.